Major funding for Kpbs Evening Edition has been made possible in part by Bill Howe family of companies providing San Diego with plumbing, heating, air restoration and flood services for over 40 years.

Call one 800 Bill Howe or visit Bill howe.com.

And by the Conrad Prebys Foundation.

Darlene Marcos Shiley and by the following.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Maya Trabulsi.

We begin this evening with new developments in the Middle East.

Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz fully open to commercial vessels amid cease fire between Israel and Lebanon.

President Trump is praising the reopening and says.

But he says it's not ending the U.S.

Navy's blockade.

Ivan Rodriguez reports.

The Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed since the start of the war, is now completely open, according to Iran.

President Donald Trump heralded the move, but said the current U.S.

naval blockade will remain in place until, quote, our transaction with Iran is 100% complete.

While Iran says the continuation of the blockade would violate the cease fire agreement and force it to reclose a critical passage, Trump and his allies appear optimistic an agreement will soon be reached.

The fact that both sides are saying the Straits are open, that's a good sign for all of us, and it's obviously a good sign that the markets like and that hopefully this is the beginning of the end of the war.

Friday morning, U.S.

stocks surged and oil prices dropped sharply.

Oil prices trading at their lowest levels since early March but still remain higher than their pre-war levels.

But experts warn even if the war ends now, it can still take months to years for oil production in the region to recover.

Restarting upstream production could take several months.

Restarting refining capacity will take several months, so all of these things are lags in the pace of the recovery.

As a ten day truce between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon also appears to be holding, despite the Lebanese army accusing Israel of violations.

There is mounting hope on all sides that there may soon be an end to a recent spike in violence.

We want the ceasefire first to be established for good.

We believe that they can and should shut up in order for the negotiators to be able to listen to each other.

Ivan Rodriguez, Kpbs news.

Well, it's been all about a little bit of a roller coaster recently.

Temperatures cooler than where we should be this time.

You're looking at historical averages and warmer kind of bouncing back and forth.

We're still going to see that trend because things shift for the weekend.

And then we have another system that moves in early next week.

I'm going to break down exactly what to expect coming up.

The San Diego Padres may soon have a new owner.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting a deal has been reached to buy the team for $3.9 billion.

Kpbs reporter John Carroll spoke with a longtime San Diego sports expert about what the deal could mean for the team.

Things have been positive in pads land of late The team had the second best winning record last year in the National League West, bested only by the World Series champions, LA Dodgers.

And now, if the Wall Street Journal's reporting is correct, the Padres are about to be purchased for a record shattering $3.9 billion.

The supposed buyers private equity billionaire Jose E Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones.

We knew since last November that the Padres were exploring the sale of the team.

Ben Higgins is the longtime sports director of KGTV KPBS' media partner.

He also co-hosts the Ben and Wood Show on 97.3 The Fan, the Padres flagship radio station.

Yeah, the team has become consistently one of the best performers in terms of ticket sales.

They were second in attendance in all of Major League Baseball last year, behind only the Dodgers.

The revenue from things like stadium concessions and merchandise, hats, jerseys as is by far the best it's ever been in franchise history.

Higgins says the team's current success can be traced directly to its late owner.

They accomplished that thanks to Peter Seidler, creating more excitement in the team by paying for exciting players like Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr and Xander Bogaerts, which has led to an unprecedented run of the team making the playoffs in four of the last six years, none of which had ever happened in the previous 50 years of Padres franchise history.

Feliciano is part owner of the English team Chelsea FC.

Higgins says that role doesn't tell you much about what he might do with the Padres, but there is this.

It wouldn't make any sense for him to do anything that would damage the interest or value of the San Diego Padres, so I would imagine that he'd be excited to keep and build on what's been going on the last few years with the Padres, but I guess we will find out in the coming weeks, months and years.

We reached out to the Padres for a comment.

They told us the team is not commenting at this time.

The Journal says the sale will probably be announced next week.

John Carroll, Kpbs news.

San Diego's police association says the department is being stretched too thinly and that low staffing is leading to longer response times.

But the city and police department are pushing back.

The union claims the second highest priority calls are seeing average response time of 40 minutes, and officers are leaving faster than they can be replaced.

The union says pay hasn't kept over the years, making recruitment more difficult.

Ideally, we should have two officers for every 1000 citizens.

We have roughly 1.21.3 for every 1000 citizens now.

We've never been at that level in San Diego.

And thankfully, because of the hard work of our officers and the community support that we have, we've done a good job.

And having low violent crime and making sure our neighborhoods are generally peaceful.

The police department told our media partner, KGTV that response times to the highest priority calls are still being answered in under seven minutes, which meets the national standards.

The city's draft budget includes $725 million set aside for police services, an increase over last year.

Mayor Todd Gloria says it's enough to avoid police station closures and cuts to patrols.

The city is working with the police officers union on a new contract.

Middle school students in the Coronado Unified School District will have no access to their cell phones during the school day next year.

Kpbs education reporter Katie Anastas says the new policy comes after more than a year of discussion among district leaders, staff and parents.

Coronado Middle School students can now use their phones during recess and lunch.

Next year.

That will change.

Students will have to put their phones, smartwatches and other devices in a lockable bag for the entire day.

The middle school is ready for a significant shift, and the the introduction and use of pouches superintend tenant Karl Mueller says the school's principal recognizes the need at last month's school board meeting.

Principal Brooke Falar said students phone use during breaks is a problem.

I kind of envisioned, oh, I'm going to text mom, right?

It's not just texting mom, it's social media.

It is, breaking rules such as no videoing, no being on social media.

Some board members wanted the bell to bell ban to apply to both the middle and high school.

Doctor Scot Youngblood said it could improve students mental health.

He pointed to a recent court case that found that Meta and Google designed social media apps like Instagram and YouTube to be addictive to children.

Many people look at a cell phone, or some people do and they say, well, it's a communication device and it's a way to stay in contact to get information, etc.. But social media companies look at this as a drug delivery device.

District leaders say enforcement at the high school could be a challenge.

Students schedules vary depending on their classes, and they can go off campus for lunch.

Board President Renee Cavanaugh also considered the cost.

Going all in is money that you can't spend right?

Pouches for both campuses would cost more than $76,000 at the middle school only it would cost about $25,000.

Mueller says the pilot program at the middle school can help inform a future decision about the high school.

I'm suggesting if we go through a year of a pilot phase at CMS and we find in the data, students have been responsive to this shift, staff have been responsive to this shift, and the board decides to roll this up into our high school.

We have a quarter of the student body who have already lived and experienced a year of these pouches.

He says the pouches are a first step in examining the role technology plays at the district schools.

Katie Anastas, Kpbs news.

It's Black Maternal Health Week, a campaign to shine a light on the high rates of maternal mortality and disparities in care and birth outcomes in the nation's capital.

Black women are facing a severe maternal health crisis.

Michael Yoshida shares how a public private partnership is working to improve care and outcomes for expectant mothers experiencing homelessness.

It's nice.

Breonna Walker is navigating pregnancy with support from the honey program.

They make sure that you get everything you need because it's not just for you, it's for a life that's growing.

Honey, which stands for Housing Our Newborns Empowering You, is designed to support and accompany women who are pregnant and experiencing homelessness.

You never really meet people who you can always call at a low point, who still be there, supportive to help you, and who don't make you feel like is your fault.

Run by community of Hope, a nonprofit and community health center in the District of Columbia, honey meets expecting mothers where they are and stays with them during one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.

Making sure you like your doctor, helping you find a doctor, and a prenatal care work that you enjoy having access to food, helping you get car seats, helping you plan for your birth.

Started in 2023, the program is offered at no cost to eligible expecting moms and is a partnership with the D.C.

Department of Human Services, which provides housing support and resources, making sure that a family has everything that they need while also exiting homelessness.

Hopefully, before the birth of the child.

That community care is having an impact and independent evaluation done by George Washington University found during its first two years, honey participants experience lower rates of preterm birth and low birth weights compared to medicated funded births, both nationally and in D.C.. It was my first pregnancy through honey, Calie Proctor learned she was a high risk pregnancy and got connected with specialists prior to the birth of her son, Jaxon, in 2025.

I went from, I would say, just nervous to just more confident and during my pregnancy with them.

And as more Americans struggled to make ends meet, there's hope this could be a model for other communities.

Homelessness providers don't know anything about health care.

Health care providers don't know anything about homelessness.

This program, I think, plays an important role in bridging those two different silos.

Without those resources, it just puts you in a really bad situation for the whole family.

It's life changing.

In Washington, I'm Michael Yoshida.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

Tonight on the NewsHour.

Iran declares the Strait of Hormuz open, raising cautious hope for a permanent peace.

That's at seven after Evening Edition on Kpbs.

The IRS has already paid out more than 69 million refunds this tax season, with more on the way.

Maribel Gonzalez spoke to a financial expert about how to make the most of your extra cash.

So far this tax season, taxpayers receiving a refund will get back an average of about $3,500.

That is up about 11% from the same period last year, according to the U.S.

Treasury.

Financial experts say there are a few ways to use those funds efficiently if they have high interest debt.

We want to make sure that we're going start chipping away at that.

That's really going to help us, I guess, starting to get ahead at some point.

If you are planning a big expense in the next few years, like buying a car or paying off college tuition, using your refund towards those goals can help you borrow less and reduce the total interest you pay.

Saving money now can also help you in the future.

I think people feel like they need to have a lot of money sometimes to really start putting money away, but honestly, the earlier you start, the less you have to put away because over time is going to compound.

And compounding really adds up over the years.

But no matter what you choose to do with your refund, make sure you have a plan for that refund.

Because if you get that check and you set it aside or you deposit it, you're not really sure what you're going to do with it.

You might just spend it, or it might go toward other things before you've done that constructive thing that you would like to do with it.

I'm Maribel Gonzalez reporting.

Well, thousands of people driving through Palm Desert caught a drone show on their way to Coachella.

The area is known for its high traffic during the massive music festival.

Mattel commissioned 400 drones to light up the night sky with messages like should have left earlier and honk for He-Man.

It was all part of a promotion for Masters of the universe, hitting theaters in June.

San Diego has a brand new film festival called Art with teeth.

The one night event spotlights emerging femme and queer filmmakers.

Kpbs Cinema Junkie Beth Accomando previews the festival that takes place Monday at Queen bees Art and Cultural Center in North Park.

Meeting Fiona Louise of Subway Goblins Micro Studio and Devyn Nace gives me hope about the next generation of film filmmakers.

They weren't happy with what the San Diego film scene was offering them, so they responded by creating art with teeth.

A self-funded, community driven festival built outside traditional industry gatekeeping and dedicated to radically femme storytelling.

We just wanted to make something that was on our own terms.

I think thought provoking, something weird, something that makes people a little uncomfortable.

We're definitely girls who bite back.

So, so does our art, naturally.

That's an attitude I fully support.

Fiona Louise's website makes clear what her mission is, and the festival she co-founded with Nace is all about making good trouble.

We wanted to create a space for community, something very inclusive compared to other film festivals.

We really wanted to represent the voices who haven't had the opportunity yet due to being a minority.

All of the creators are either female or queer, and I think when working with art and you are queer or you are a woman, it is inherently political.

Art with teeth is a one night film festival held at Queen bees Art and Cultural Center and featuring the work of 5 femme filmmakers, a drag queen MC, drinks and conversation.

Both women are polishing their own films for the festival.

My film Tehran Lights and Hollywood Nights is a documentary about an immigrant filmmaker who started the first Persian American television station in Los Angeles and he just so happens to be my grandpa and mine is called Carpe Noctem.

It is a camp horror mockumentary about a super natural band breaking up in their last final interview.

It's chaotic.

It's unhinged.

It is fantastic, in my opinion.

That confidence is also fueling the ambitious duo's determination to make the festival an annual event that's about more than just film in the world we are living in right now.

Femme rights and queer rights are being attacked, and we need to be celebrating our joys and our triumphs right now.

You can join the celebration on Monday and note that as part of the festival's grassroots campaign, Fiona Louise has pledged to shave her head on TikTok if the event sells out.

Beth Accomando, Kpbs news San Diego leaders cut the ribbon today on new trail improvements in Ruffin Canyon.

Kpbs reporter Katie Hyson says they provide a new connection between Sarah Mesa and Mission Valley.

so when I think for relationship with the canyon itself, for so many of us, the way we have come to love and know our natural spaces, the plants and animals that inhabit them is because of a trail.

It gets us in there.

It allows us to participate.

We become part of this space rather than just something outside of it.

As you can see, the beautiful monkey flower and lemonade berry and California sage.

And bring back to us all these beautiful native plants.

Kevin Johnston lives nearby.

He's been pushing for these improvements for almost two decades.

Oh my God.

Sometimes I thought it would never happen, you know?

But, this is just one of the greatest days I've had in years.

Before the upgrades, it was nearly impossible for hikers to safely cross between Sarah Mesa and Mission Valley.

Workers relocated parts of the trail, added three footbridges, and restored a portion of the wetlands.

We're super excited about what this means, not only for encouraging people to protect and preserve our canyon, but also connecting our two communities.

And just as important for some, Sarah Mason's.

They can now hike to Costco for hot dogs.

Katie Hyson, Kpbs news.

Well, we've been seeing some stronger wind gusts in our mountain regions.

35 45 plus mile per hour gusts continues throughout the rest of today, but fades throughout the overnight.

So by tomorrow, this will be less of an issue.

The heat.

It peaks this weekend, at least for some of us.

It's a little different along the coast as it tends to be.

But next week there's another system that's going to be moving in.

It's going to cool things down once again.

Let's break down all of the forecast, starting with what to expect for tonight.

So we're at 50 in Oceanside 40s for Escondido and Ramona, 57, in San Diego.

And really it's just our southern coastal regions that have some clouds moving in places like San Diego and Chula Vista.

But the rest of the region looking clear overnight, which is how we get to the 38 degree low in Mount Laguna.

There we look ahead to tomorrow.

There's a range, that's for sure.

Tis the season.

Right.

So 70s for Oceanside, San Diego, along the coast.

As we get further inland, we're warmer looking in the 80s, 85 for Borrego Springs, but then 50s as we look towards Mount Laguna.

Here is the system that I was talking about early next week.

The biggest impacts they're going to be further north.

We're looking into the northwest and then all the way down into even central portions of California.

We do get rain all the way down to San Diego and far Southern California, but it's just not going to be as far inland as northern portions of the state.

So along the coast, be ready for the rain.

Further inland, maybe you get a few raindrops a little bit delayed, but not seeing the impacts that we'll see closer to the coast other than it will drop our temperatures.

So let's break down the next five days.

Now that we've looked into next week, starting with our coast five day outlook, we're in the mid 70s for your weekend, dropping down into the low 70s by the time we get to your Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

So there's that cooling that I was mentioning.

We're in the 80s Saturday.

We already start to go on the decline by Sunday back into the 70s.

We're at 70.

By Wednesday we go to our mountain regions.

We're in the 50s going from the mid to upper 50s this weekend down to the low 50s, but we're bouncing all around because we're at 54 once again.

By the time we get to Wednesday, looking at our desert regions, the weekend is looking pretty good, but Sunday it's going to be on the warmer side.

Keep in mind that 91 will actually feel like closer to triple digits, which I know if you are used to being in the desert region, you are used to this.

If not, you want to make sure you're hydrating.

Taking those precautions.

We get back down to the low 80s though.

By mid next week.

If you're right handed and you've ever try to write with your less dominant hand, chances are you'd struggle.

Now imagine doing that with typing, writing backwards, shaking hands, reading backwards, and even switch footing in sports.

Well, one local man has taught himself to do that and wants to show people how mirror movement development, or MMD changed his life and can change yours.

Whichever way the grain goes, Jim Houliston cuts against it.

He greets with his left hand types on a reverse keyboard with journals, writing backwards, and reads using a mirror.

I consider myself one of the most ambidextrous people on Earth.

We'll go, we'll go and we'll see this.

He calls it the third pillar of longevity.

Next to nutrition and exercise.

But Houliston has not always been equally capable on both sides.

Like most of us, he grew up with a dominant side sick board, a skateboarding injury years ago left him struggling.

He decided to switch things up by switching up his feet.

It felt impossible.

I felt like I couldn't do it, but it didn't hurt my body, so I just kept doing it.

And four years of that, after being able to do tricks and such, skating probably best in my life by that point, he says, training his weaker side strengthened his dominant one, a concept known as manual transfer learning.

But what would happen if I started doing everything else?

Lefty switch, aka a mirrored.

And that moment was a good 15 years ago Houliston has since developed his ability in mirrored motor development, or MMD.

In simple terms, it's doing everything in a mirrored direction, a concept he explains in his book Big Three MMD History's Ambidextrous and the Benefits of Mirror Movement Development.

Each page is written in both directions.

You would think we should be doing this for benefit memory.

Recollection is one thing that majorly increases with this spatial awareness, which you can see majorly with the top athletes in the world.

LeBron James is my favorite example.

LeBron James, just like Larry Bird, does everything left handed except basketball.

Kobe Bryant would, practice shooting, lefty lefty threes.

But mirrored movement is something we've seen in some of the greatest outliers in history.

Nikola Tesla.

Mahatma Gandhi.

Jimi Hendrix Jimi Hendrix was mixed handed.

Dominant lefty preferred playing guitar.

Left handed.

But his dad, who gifted him the guitar, had said that, left handed guitar playing was a sign of the devil and he was threatening to take away his guitar.

Hendrix was like you ain't taking my guitar away.

So he learned how to play right handed.

Two of Houliston's favorite historic figures also touted the ability to use both sides.

Benjamin Franklin, who operated a printing press, became accustomed to reading language backward.

And then you can look at DaVinci.

DaVinci, also a man of many, many expressions.

Da Vinci wrote all of his notebooks in mirrored direction.

So any kind of using your brain is not a bad idea.

My name is Ayse Saygin.

I'm a professor.

At UC San Diego in cognitive science and neurosciences.

Saygin says this may be a case of neurons that fire together, wire together.

Also known as Hebbian theory.

She recently studied the way the brain is constantly in loop between hemispheres, visually and spatially, called hemispheric lateralization.

An oversize prosthetic hand was used to grasp objects.

We were testing touch perception, and the representation of the hand became changed within 15 minutes, she says.

Left handed people generally have a bigger corpus callosum, which bridges the brain's hemispheres because they're probably doing a lot more by manual tasks or flipping tasks and using both sides of the brain to deal with the world.

I wanted to try my own experiment to see the bounds of Jim's MMD skills.

And what better way than to try to read scripts on my teleprompter backwards?

Three.

Two one.

And cue.

An ambidexter is Someone who displays notable use of both hands, a trait that commonly is commonly known as ambidexterity.

The lives of many contemporary ambidexters.

Show us that this skill is not something that you are only born with, but can be developed through practice by any average person.

Reading from a teleprompter by itself is difficult because the words are moving, but also reading moving words backwards.

That is quite a talent.

My turn to try a new script.

Let's see how fast I can do it.

And there's numbers there.

Okay, let's see.

I'm not going to look.

I'm going to do this fresh.

Ready?

Three.

Two.

One.

Back in December, the San Diego Unified School District was facing a $47 million deficit for the next fiscal year.

I struggled a bit.

And other classified positions.

Yeah.

And how did how does it feel?

It's uncomfortable.

I am definitely stretching my cognitive ability to do that.

So many things that to me have felt incredible.

That I know people want to feel that too.

That's what I want them to experience.

That's why they should practice this.

He says with something that is cost drug and pain free.

Creating body symmetry through MD is a great thing.

Thanks so much for the awesome Kpbs interview.

Thank you Jim.

Maya Trabulsi, practice MMD.

Wherever you are.

Kpbs news.

And you can get more information at Amby life.

Org and you can go to our website to find all of our stories.

Kpbs.org.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Maya Trabulsi.

Good night.

Major funding for Kpbs Evening Edition has been made possible in part by Bill Howe family of companies providing San Diego with plumbing, heating, air restoration and flood services for over 40 years.

Call one 800 Bill Howe or visit Bill howe.com.

And by the Conrad Prebys Foundation.

Darlene Marcos Shiley and by the following.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.